The European Union recently announced the biggest ever set of calls for proposals (invitations to bid for funds) for research under its Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). In total of 8.1 billion Euros(in INR ) this worldwide call will support projects and ideas that will tackle issues such as human health, protecting the environment and finding new solutions to growing challenges linked to urbanisation and managing waste. The funding – open to organisations and businesses in all EU Member States and key partner countries including India- makes up the lion's share of the EU's research budget for 2013. Out of the total funding, 4.8 billion Euros is dedicated to thematic research priorities like health, bio-technology, social sciences, transport etc. Special attention will be given to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) with a funding of about 1.2 billion Euros to develop new products or further innovate on their offerings. And around 2.7 billion Euros has been allocated to cement Europe's place as a world class destination for researchers, mainly through individual grants from the European Research Council (1.75 billion Euros), and Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (963 million Euros) for training and mobility.